Book Discussion on The Inextinguishable Symphony

Mr. Goldsmith talks about his book The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, published by John…
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Mr. Goldsmith talks about his book The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany, published by John Wiley and Sons. The book is the story of his parents, Gunther Goldschmidt, a flutist, and Rosemarie Gumpert, a violist, who fell in love after working together in the Frankfurt Kulturbund Orchestra. In 1933, more than 8,000 Jewish musicians, actors, and other artists were expelled from their positions with German orchestras, opera and theater companies. The Jewish artists formed the Judische Kulturbund or Jewish Culture Association. The Kulturbund was sponsored and subsidized by Joseph Goebbels’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. According to Mr. Goldsmith, it provided the Nazis with a propaganda tool to illustrate to the world how well Jews were being treated under the Third Reich. Eventually Gunther and Rosemarie were married and emigrated to America. Mr. Goldsmith tells the story of the Kulturbund and recounts how his father jeopardized his life during the Holocaust by returning from sanctuary in Sweden to be with Rosemarie in Germany. He also relates the fates of other members of the family including his paternal grandfather and uncle who were passengers on the St. Louis, a ship that sailed from Germany to Cuba and the United States but was refused asylum. close

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*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.